If there was one thing the late 90's had, it was variety when it came to available sets. By the time 1997 rolled around, we were looking at 60-ish different mainstream sets. You want a card with nearly a whole video clip that comes packaged in a film reel style can? Done. Cards that are basically ingots of solid metal? Multiple sets to choose from. Coins? Marbles? Acetate? CD-ROM's? Whatever your heart desires. But when you're making a variety of sets, you must also come up with a variety of names. Remember those coins I just mentioned? Those were brought to you by Pinnacle Mint. I absolutely loved this set. I never seriously collected coins, but I had the obligatory box with wheat pennies, buffalo nickels, and half dollars. But now you're giving me coins with players on them, and they either fit into the card or in a lovely holder that it comes with? Sold.
But while this was happening, Topps was coming up with an all-metal set that would become 1998 Stars 'N' Steel. And it likely became this because the original name "Topps Mint" just wasn't going to work now. This is to some degree conjecture, as no one has ever come up with real information about this set. However it makes sense, so I'm going to agree with the prevailing wisdom and put it in writing here. But anyway, back to the important stuff, the very hard to find prototype from that set:
This card is so shiny and metallic that I could not get a decent shot in my lightbox, so here I am just holding it. For the longest time, only a couple of these were known to exist. Apparently over the past few years, another half dozen or so at least have popped up. Even if those numbers are very conservative, this is a rarity and something I'm super excited to have finally picked up. Hopefully one day we might track some information down as to what really went on with these.